Washington, DC, Dec. 7, 2009 –The Environmental Protection Agency today finalized its finding [1] that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare and therefore must be regulated under the Clean Air Act. CEI announced that it will file suit in federal court to overturn the endangerment finding on the grounds that EPA has ignored major scientific issues, including those raised recently in the Climategate fraud scandal.

“EPA is clinging for dear life to the notion that the global climate models are holding up,” said Sam Kazman [2], CEI General Counsel. “In reality, those models are about to sink under the growing weight of evidence that they are fabrications.”

“Today’s decision by EPA will trigger costly and time-consuming permitting requirements for tens of thousands of previously unregulated small businesses under the Clean Air Act,” said Marlo Lewis [3], CEI Senior Fellow. “A more potent Anti-Stimulus Package would be hard to imagine.

“The sensible solution,” said Lewis, “would be for Congress to pass legislation, such as that proposed by Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee that would pre-empt the EPA from regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.”

EPA's action today is in response to the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA that required EPA to consider whether greenhouse gases should be regulated under the Clean Air Act.